Havana Bay [Audio CD]

Martin Cruz Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 2000

The body of a Russian embassy official is found floating in Havana Bay, and Arkady Renko, the memorable detective from GORKY PARK, is sent to identify it. Renko, however, refuses to positively identify the body. Later that night, somebody tries to kill him. The Russian is soon followed in death by a Cuban boxer and a prostitute. Although none of them is supposed to be investigated, Renko cannot be stopped. And now, Renko can't go home - he's stuck in Cuba. He speaks no Spanish, knows nothing about Cuba, and as a Russian in post Cold War Cuba, is a pariah. However there is something about Havana - the rhythms of waves against the seawall, the insinuation of music in the air, and finally, Ofelia herself, a Cuban detective - that plunges Renko back into life.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this fourth book in Martin Cruz Smith's splendid series, an amiable Irish American gangster explains to Arkady Renko what he and the other 84 wanted Americans hiding out in Cuba do with themselves. "We try to stay alive. Useful. Tell me, Arkady, what are you doing here?" "The same," says Renko--and it's true. His life as a Russian cop has become so bleak and lonely that he takes any opportunity to shake things up, even spending his own savings to fly to Havana when an old colleague is found dead--floating inside an inner tube after night-fishing in Havana Bay. Renko sets out to make himself useful in this shabby, fascinating, haunted country whose inhabitants look on Russians with the cold disdain of survivors of a nasty divorce.

As he did so well in Gorky Park, Smith again makes Renko very much a classic Russian hero in temperament and tradition, but also the eternal outsider. He is at times close to the edge of despair--but his trip to Havana restores his natural curiosity and life force.

In this hot Havana, ripe with the fruity smell of sex, Renko keeps his Moscow overcoat on--until an equally idealistic and out-of-place young female cop gets him to loosen up. There's an unusually complex plot, even for the sly strand-spinner Smith. He raises baffling questions: Why would a group of military plotters order illegal lobsters in a fancy restaurant and then not eat them? And his descriptions of Cuban life are dead-on, reminding us on every page what a superb stylist he is. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Arkady Renko, drawn to post-Soviet Union Cuba to identify the body of his friend Pribluda, is interrupted while attempting suicide. In this well-engineered abridgment of Smith's latest novel, well read by Stephen Lang, the new Cuba, its reliance on Russia replaced by contempt for everything and everyone Russian, is a land of poverty whose citizens rely on the tourist trade (prostitution, drugs, black market cigars, etc.) for sustenance. There's enough gruesome description of bodies, buildings, and civilizations in advanced states of deterioration here to keep the listener awake, as well as an interesting and involved plot, a smattering of romance, and continued development of the Renko character. Those who already are Renko fans will be pleased with this offering; those unfamiliar with him will need a bit of endurance to get into this audio. The language and descriptions are graphic. It's not exactly a tourist's travelog of Havana; more a reminder of how bad things are in Third World countries. Recommended for adult audio collections.ACliff Glaviano, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Books on Tape (April 27, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0736651861
• ISBN-13: 978-0736651868
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (131 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,376,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Martin Cruz-Smith's novels include Stalin's Ghost, Gorky Park, Rose, December 6, Polar Star and Stallion Gate. A two-time winner of the Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers and a recipient of Britain's Golden Dagger Award, he lives in California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inferno Con Salsa, April 19, 2001

By 

Richard Wells (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Havana Bay (Arkady Renko Novels, No 4) (Mass Market Paperback)

Martin Cruz Smith is the Dante of post-Soviet Russia, and Arkady Renko, Mr. Cruz Smith's protagonist in the "Gorky Park" series is our guide to the nether regions. Renko is the perfect Russian: tortured, haunted, romantic, and in need of a square meal. The problem is, if you fed him he'd probably go into shock from the nourishment. In "Havana Bay" Renko doesn't seem to consume much more than strong cigarettes and the left-over pickles in a recently murdered (?) friend's refrigerator. And how a Russian in Cuba gets home-style pickles is a mystery unto itself.

Mr. Cruz Smith is a master of atmosphere and character. In his series he takes us from Moscow, to the Bering Sea, to Havana, and each locale is another vision of hell on earth. He has a detailists eye, and whether it's the slick of oil on water, the tactile pleasure of a cold can of beer, or the sound of cloven hooves on marble he awakens each scene with particulars. Havana is a city being slowly strangled by economics and regressing to the corruption and lust for the tourist dollar of the Batista era.

Mr. Cruz Smith's characters are neither black nor white, but the moral gray of humans under stress. Yes, the good guys are good, but they are also flawed, and that accounts for much of their attraction. Renko, Orfelia his Cuban detective inamorata, George Washington Walls an ex-pat US radical, and the sundry other characters in this well written, literate, mystery are all worth watching. Mr. Cruz Smith doesn't sketch, he paints.

Settle back, read, and you are there - have a good time in hell!

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Above average mystery thriller, May 12, 2000

By 

R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Havana Bay (Hardcover)

This is the latest installment in a series starring the Moscow investigator Arkady Renko. For those familiar with this series, this book is most similar to the second installment, Polar Star. Like all of Cruz Smith's books, this is a well written and capably plotted mystery. As with all the books in the series, the plot involves murder, political intrigue, and official corruption. Neither Havana Bay nor its two predecessors approach the quality of the original book in the series, Gorky Park. That book was a particularly stylish and imaginative variation of the classic American detective novel developed by Raymond Chandler in which the protagonist is the only decent individual, or at least the only individual interested in the truth, in a corrupt milieu. In Gorky Park, Renko's preoccupation with finding the truth makes him into a virtually heroic figure in Soviet Moscow. In the subsequent books, Renko appears more passive. This is particularly true in Havana Bay, where the suicidal Renko's grip on life has become tenuous and his interest in the truth seems more a matter of habit than passion. Cruz Smith does not apparently have the ability to make Renko's despair realistic enough to make the characterization compelling. The most interesting character is Renko's Cuban counterpart and love interest, a female detective caught in the contradictions of her idealism and the reality of post-Cold War Cuba. Still, this is a decent read and better than most books in this genre.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Luminous setting - murky plot, May 28, 2000

By 

Doug Vaughn - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Havana Bay (Hardcover)

Havana Bay, like many of Martin Cruz Smith's books, works becasue he recreates the milieu of his story so well - and because it is so interesting a setting. The plot itself is so dense that it recedes behind the scenery. Arkady Renko, Russian and self-conscious to the core, stands out like a sore thumb in Havana. His clothes, his attitude, his singular search for the truth about what happened to his late 'friend', all set him apart from those around him and propel him to the less than exciting conclusion that Cruz serves up for the reader. Far from the best of the Renko series, Havana Bay is still an interesting story and deserves to be read. Cruz can conjure up locale and scene better than any writter I know. If for no other reason than a vicarious trip to contemporary Havana, I would recommend this book.